O'Neill unhappy with Curtis Davies agent outburst

The defender's representative, Phil Sproson, said earlier this week it was "disappointing" that Villa had refused to enter into negotiations until Davies, who is currently injured until Christmas at least, reached 60 games for the club - a condition stipulated in his current deal. Davies had made 58 appearances for Villa before being ruled out of action due to a dislocated shoulder.

O'Neill is far from amused that Sproson has chosen to publicise the internal matter though and has defended the club's conduct in their dealings with Davies, who joined Villa in a permanent deal from West Brom in the summer of 2008.

"I always thought that it was private information with a contract but if the agent of a player chooses to divulge them then that's entirely up to them," O'Neill said. "He's due a re-negotiation of a contract if he plays 60 games.

"I don't really want to bring this into the public domain, but I think that we've pretty well looked after players here at this football club - both injured players and players who have done very well for the football club.

"We had some conversations with the agent and really, at the end of it all, the agent knows where we stand and what we were looking at. He has chosen now to come out and tell these things and that's entirely up to him. The fact is I do not deny that the stipulation in his contract is an 'X' number of games which is 60. I didn't know that at the time until the agent reminded me.

"That is not the reason that I did not play him in the game against Fulham. I was very pleased that he had played some matches, when really he probably wasn't completely fit - in the sense that it was psychological if not physical that the shoulder might come out at any given stage again.

"So from that viewpoint we're grateful. But all of those things are all taken into consideration when eventually we sit down and decide to do it (the contract), naturally. There are certain guidelines but this idea that 'he is considering his future', I'm not so sure that that's the brightest thing that an agent - and a player who's controlling his agent - should be saying.''